The origins of the Grooming and Coercive Control Summit 2023
This is the first in a series of GCC Summit 2023 blogs. Neurodiverse Connection founder and director Jill Corbyn reflects on how and why the topic of grooming and coercive control was chosen for our first ever summit event, and shares their hopes for what we can achieve.
Speaking with friend and colleague Kay Louise Aldred over the summer, we reflected on the number of autistic people that we are connected to who have experienced grooming and/or coercive control. Because of the manipulative and isolating nature of these relationships, many do not identify this for what it is until later in life. They look for support and find that there is little – if anything – that meets their needs as neurodivergent individuals. In fact, many services refuse to support autistic people at all.
In our experience, many of these conversations are whispers between friends. Shame still cloaks the topic, silencing, blaming and isolating victims and survivors. But they are not responsible. They are not to blame. And we need to do better to make that clear and to support change.
In that moment, we decided that we needed to act. We planned an online talk. Walking through the woods, this idea blossomed. I thought of the powerful and important work that Dr. Amy Pearson has been doing on interpersonal violence. Perhaps a mini-series instead..?
We hope that we can support this topic and our needs as neurodivergent people to be on the agenda, visible, spoken to and acknowledged – the precursor to change.
It’s amazing to see how the summit has grown. I’m humbled by the interest and response we’ve had. I’m reassured by meeting other people who also see the need for an event like this. People who are already tailoring their services. People who are developing much needed research. People who are working with others and sharing their experiences to support each other and to drive change.
I also see the large national organisations we approached who don’t have time for this work. Who have already provided resources for people with a learning disability but can’t (or won’t) do this too. I see the misunderstanding and lack of action that inspired the summit.
It’s our hope that bringing together speakers, resources, research, and personal stories will enable people to identify their own experiences and know that they are seen, and that they are not alone. We hope that services will better understand the needs of neurodivergent people and how they can adapt and improve their approach to be more accessible to us. We hope that commissioners better understand the need and amend their frameworks to reference our population. We hope that parents, teachers, carers, and those in positions of power will feel more informed and better able to support and protect people they work with. We hope that we can support this topic and our needs as neurodivergent people to be on the agenda, visible, spoken to and acknowledged – the precursor to change.
We are a new organisation, established just over a year ago, and this is our first offering. We hope it’s all that you need and expect – thanks so much to everyone that has connected to share feedback so far. I’m so grateful and moved for everyone that has connected to share their own experiences, thank us for our work, and to suggest adaptations and ways that we can improve.
